


Flowers & Kisses

by viktorkrumn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Muggle, Angst with a Happy Ending, Don't copy to another site, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-09-24 03:43:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17093387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viktorkrumn/pseuds/viktorkrumn
Summary: Ron works at Neville's flower shop as a job-between-jobs. Hermione seems to always need more flowers. Ron is kind and warm, so their friendship quickly starts to seem like it's more than that, even though they're both dating other people.





	1. Red for Cormac

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written the whole thing yet so who even knows where this is going, find out together with me. I do have a general outline so hopefully posting this will motivate me to write some more ;)  
> Also, the chapters are gonna be super short, sorry :/ but I'll try to post as often as possible to make up for it.

‘Neville's Flowers,’ said a fancy sign at the top. Hermione pushed open the door to the shop and a cheerful-sounding bell rang above her head. She looked around at all the different flowers. Not roses, Cormac thought they were too sappy… Hmm... What other flowers did she know? Almost none, apparently. "Hello?" The shop had appeared to be empty at first glance, but Hermione had absent-mindlessly assumed that there must be someone in the back.

"Yeah! Over here!" She had been right.

Hermione started walking quickly in the direction of the voice. "Hi, so I want flowers for my boyfriend, but he hates roses, and apparently I don't know any other flowers. Can you help me?" She registered that the voice belonged to a tall, redheaded man, but not much more. She should hurry; Cormac would be back from practice soon.

"Sure, but first you have to tell me your name." The boy had a warm smile. "I'm Ron."

"Hermione. Pleasure."

"Alright, 'Mione. What the occasion?"

"What? Oh, oh, um, it's our anniversary."

"Ok. What does your boyfriend like?" Ron was already looking around, thinking.

"Um, basketball. And himself. And me, obviously. Oh, and he's really proud of his fraternity... their mascot is a lion. That's it, really."

"That's plenty of information, don't worry." There was that smile again. Hermione briefly wondered whether he was flirting... but no, he was just nice. She smiled back. "What colors does he like?"

"Red and gold."

"Alright." Ron motioned for Hermione to follow him through the shop. She wasn't interested in plants, never had been, but it was really very colorful in here. She wondered who Neville-From-The-Sign was. "Here." Ron handed her a bouquet of red flowers with big petals and a strong smell, and Hermione nodded her approval. Ron led her back through the store to the small counter, where she paid.

"Who's Neville?" She blurted out and immediately scolded herself. 'Really, Hermione? That's your idea of small talk?'

"A friend. He owns this shop." Ron didn't seem surprised by the question at all. He probably introduced himself as Ron to everybody and got asked that a lot. "This is my job between jobs, he let me work here... has a big obsession with plants." Hermione allowed herself one last smile before she was off.

When she got home, Cormac was already there, but he was in the shower, meaning he had just arrived from basketball practice. She quickly pulled out the box of chocolates from under the bed and arranged them nicely next to the flowers, then called out, "I'm home!'"

"Hey, babe!" Cormac yelled from the shower. Hermione could picture him now, hot water raining down from above, his lean, muscular body bent slightly forward, his hands massaging out his hair. "Happy anniversary!"

Five minutes later, Cormac walked downstairs, his hair still wet. "Hey, Herm." He kissed her lightly. "Ooh, chocolate  **and** flowers? For me? Thanks." He raised his eyebrows in mock surprise and grinned, which made Hermione smile. She loved Cormac and his antics. "Here, I got something for you too." He leaned back, never taking his eyes off her, and picked up a small rectangular package.

Hermione tore into the wrapping paper to find a book she had been saving up for – a classic, first edition, and older than her grandmother, it was one of only 50 copies ever made. The edges of the pages were covered in gold and it had a built-in ribbon bookmark. Did she mention she loved Cormac? "Thank you so, so, so much! This is amazing!" Hermione jumped up and wrapped her arms around Cormac's neck, kissing him in the most cliché pose ever. "Thanks," she whispered, their noses pressed together.


	2. Blue for Mum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2!  
> I would love it if you left comments or kudos or even subscribed.

The next week, Hermione found herself in the flower shop again, this time shopping for her mother's birthday. "Hey, it's Hermione, remember me?" She called out as she entered, the bell ringing again. She was joking, but Ron surprised her by saying – shouting, really, because he was at the back of the shop again – that he did.

He appeared between two huge potted plants, smiling as always. "What's it gonna be this time?"

"Flowers for my mum's birthday... something blue, maybe?" This time she was much more cooperative and less doubtful of his weird questions.

"Alright." Ron nodded along. "Gentle... or striking?"

"The color? Light. The flowers themselves... maybe something in between?"

Ron started walking into the maze that was the flower shop. "So, when's your mum's birthday?"

"Today. I'm going to go over this afternoon and surprise her, and I thought flowers would be a nice addition to her present."

"Nice. So, are these good?" Ron had carefully put together a big bouquet of lovely blue flowers, pulled from all sorts of different places.

Hermione examined the flowers closely. "Sure."

After she paid, Ron took her wrist lightly and led her to the back room. "I'm not going to murder or rape you in this dark and dusty back room, honest to god, but I wanted to show you something to symbolize our newly formed friendship."

Hermione couldn't help but laugh. "What is it?"

Ron pulled out a deck of cards, seemingly out of nowhere. "Pick a card, any card..."

Hermione barely contained her smile. She chewed on her lip to hide it and decisively sent out a hand to pick out a random card. Two of hearts...

"Alrighty. Put it back on top of the pile –" with a quick sweep of his hand, Ron pulled the cards back together into a pile and mixed it up a bit “– is it four of diamonds?"

"No." A small butterfly in her chest was disappointed that he hadn't succeeded, but a bigger butterfly still was oddly satisfied. Hermione liked to be the best.

"No, of course it isn’t..." Ron reached behind her ear as if to tuck her hair back, and when he brought it back a card was unfolding in his fingers. "Because it's two of hearts."

Hermione clapped and cheered, then laughed. "Good one."

A few minutes later, Hermione left the shop with her flowers, a new friend, and a new card trick (she was so curious that she figured out herself how Ron had done it, after a lot of nagging on her part and him insisting that “a magician never reveals his secrets”).

On the way to her parents’ place, she thought about what Ron had told her about his family, which sounded interesting and warm and loud and fun, just like Ron himself...

_ "My brothers taught me that one." _

_ "You have more than one brother? Lucky you. I'm an only child... at least I have my cat." _

_ "I have five older brothers... and a sister. You would love her, you two would be best friends." _

Hermione's only family was her parents, who had almost moved to Australia a few years back, and her best friend, Harry. Fortunately, her parents didn’t end up moving, and now she had Cormac and Crookshanks the cat, too.


End file.
